Clearing up Guthrie

Guthrie allowed a season-high seven runs (six earned) over a season-low 4 2/3 innings and said he was “embarrassed” by the outing in his postgame remarks, apologizing to teammates and fans on hand for the Orioles’ 8-3 loss to the Yankees.

On Thursday afternoon, the nameplate above Guthrie’s locker was gone as were most of his belongings, besides a few jerseys. Asked if he needed to remove some of the clutter, the right-hander agreed that was part of it.

“I think he really wanted to get one under his belt [Wednesday] night against the Yankees,” Trembley said of Guthrie prior to Thursday’s series finale. “It didn’t happen for him, and I think he was disappointed. He felt responsible for it, and I told him today that he shouldn’t feel that way. He’s a guy with a lot of pride. He works real hard. I think he expects himself to be perfect all of the time. When he’s not, he takes responsibility for that and it bothers him.”

Trembley said he was on hand to film a MASN commercial earlier this season and saw Guthrie getting his running in despite a torrential downpour.

“The guy just prepares himself. He works, he cares,” Trembley said. “He’s coming off a season that wasn’t up to his standards.”

Guthrie (0-3) is winless in five starts this year, but has improved his numbers considerably from last season. He had tossed four straight quality starts prior to Wednesday and -most importantly – limited opponents to just two homers. Robinson Cano tagged Guthrie for his third long ball of the season Wednesday. Guthrie led the American League in losses (17) and home runs allowed last season (35) and has made a conscious effort to revert back to his ’08 and ’07 self.

“Let me start by saying I’m embarrassed by the way the game started, I was embarrassed by the way the game finished,” Guthrie said following Wednesday’s loss in front of a crowd of 17,248 at Camden Yards.

“I’m apologetic to fans who pay to come and watch the Orioles and watch us lose, in this case, because of me. I’m apologetic to teammates for the inability to help them win a game in four starts. I’m apologetic to Jorge [Posada] if he is to miss any time for yanking a pitch and hitting him.”

Also, my colleague at Yankees.com Bryan Hoch tells me Posada’s plunking was still a topic of pregame discussion for Joe Girardi. Girardi had some words about Guthrie’s inability to command the inside pitch following last night’s game. Since the start of 2008, Guthrie has hit 17 batters, nine have been Yankees. And that’s not including the pitch that Guthrie hit Mark Teixeira with in Spring Training.

Categories

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.